


The Phoenix on the Bed

by Cadjet001



Series: The First Terrible Fate [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: BDSM, Bisexual Female Character, Blood and Violence, Bondage, Bondage and Discipline, Community: femslash_kink, Consensual But Not Safe Or Sane, Cunnilingus, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, F/F, Fictional Religion & Theology, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kink Negotiation, Lesbian Sex, Mentioned Chastity Play, Polyamorous Character, Princes & Princesses, Prostitution, Recreational Drug Use, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Riding Crops, Safewords, Self-Indulgent World Building, Spanking, Swords & Sorcery, Theology, Violence during Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:40:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24860209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cadjet001/pseuds/Cadjet001
Summary: For the 2019 Femslash kink meme prompt here:https://femslash-kink.dreamwidth.org/27607.html?thread=4020951#cmt4020951Original, Princess/Client, Princess sneaks from the castle and is mistaken for a prostitute
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Series: The First Terrible Fate [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1800136
Kudos: 18
Collections: The Annual Femslash Kink Meme 2019, The Annual Femslash Kinkmeme





	The Phoenix on the Bed

**Author's Note:**

> Renamed from 'How Meridia met Lorgona'.

It was a night in high summer and the city of Highpyre lay sweltering in the shadow of Castle Solari on its high rocky hill. Daughter Moon was full and beautiful, while her million shining cousins filled the sky like silver sand. The oppressive heat brought restless nights and dark dreams, but did nothing to discourage those who thronged the city’s pleasure district. In the warren of narrow streets around the towering Cathedral of Night bodies pressed together like ants in their nest, some for sale, some looking to buy. Ornate oil lamps bathed the squat half-brick buildings in perpetual twilight. The aromas of food and liquor spilled from taverns and brothels to mingle with the stench of other, less pleasant things, while a dozen tongues and a hundred instruments blended together to fill the night with strange music pleasing to the silver goddess.

The sounds and smells pressed in on crown princess Meridia Solari as she slipped through the crowds, unrecognised by her subjects as she searched for a woman to lie down with. She was dressed discreetly in a grey servant’s jacket and trousers, her golden hair tied up in an a simple bun. A hairpin dagger sat against her thigh and a purse full of silver hung from her belt. At the first sign of the moon she’d snuck down from her bedroom, through the escape tunnel at the base of her tower and out into the bustle of the town. In the castle she could have as many perfumed courtesans as she wanted, but on that night the blood of the phoenix ran hot in her veins. She needed something earthier, something wilder, someone who didn’t know her as a princess of the blood. Her royal mother Queen Aurora didn’t approve of her slumming. If she was found out it would be a harsh spanking over the chamberlain’s knee and the golden chastity belt for a week. Meridia was an adventurous spirit however; thinking of the punishment she tempted with every step she took only excited her further, the threat of consequences adding to the thrill. 

The pleasure houses of Highpyre were famous throughout the Summerlands. The _House of the Moon_ , which had all the best dancers. The _Phantom Cat_ , with its ghostly mascot who watched while you fucked. The _Carvery_ , which specialised in pain. Each had a brightly painted façade and an upper balcony where their harlots waited and displayed themselves. Some were naked, while some wore elaborate costumes. Some were classically beautiful, while some were not. Most were human, but a few had horns or wings or skin slippery with scales. Meridia passed them all by, wanting something new. She eyed the streetwalkers who huddled under each lamp, and scanned the faces of her fellow patrons in the hope that perhaps someone would approached and couple with her without payment, but her feet kept walking and her eyes saw nobody who was quite what she wanted, whatever that might be. She was about to turn around and pick at random, when through the crowd she spotted a sign she hadn’t seen before, hanging outside a building on the corner of two streets. It showed a naked woman with golden hair dancing in front of a scarlet sunset. The establishment was called _The Sun In Splendour_. A woman with golden locks much like her own stood on a the balcony, wearing a bulky white dress like one of Meridia’s own formal gowns and a silver tiara on her head. Meridia stopped and stared in delight. As she watched another woman stepped out of the shuttered door behind the first, naked, pale as the moonlight with wavy blonde hair and a black crown the glittered with sequins. The women were, unmistakably, dressed as herself and her mother. The harlot in the dress caught her eye and beckoned with the fan she held, smiling sweetly down at Meridia just as she did herself from the windows of the castle on parade days.

Checking that her purse was still there Meridia hurried into the house. The door was white, with a glass panel that bore the same design as the sign above. The saloon inside was busy with customers and well decorated, with brass lamps on polished tables. The bartender wore a castle servant’s uniform similar to Meridia’s own. Behind her, proudly displayed, was a portrait of Aurora Solari the first and the phoenix prince locked in a passionate embrace. 

“Hello,” said the uniformed girl as Meridia approached the bar. She was goblin-kin, short and green with the stumps of horns sprouting from her head. “Are you here for work? We weren’t expecting you.”

“What?” said Meridia. “No, I’m a client. Why do you ask, do I look like a harlot?” It was a disingenuous question, but she wanted to know more.

“Not by most standards,” said the goblin. “But this is _The Sun In Splendour_. You haven’t heard of us then?”

“No, what’s special about it?” said Meridia. The goblin cocked her head towards the portrait.

“We specialise in girls who look like our beloved royalty. Blue eyed blondes with the height to match.”

“Is that legal?” said Meridia. Petty treason was a slippery thing, and dressing prostitutes as princesses was definitely on the line. She certainly didn’t feel insulted, but her mother’s servants might think differently.

“We have an understanding with the law.” An older goblin woman in a purple dress had emerged from a door behind the bar. “My establishment is a shrine of rough popular piety. Lots of people out there are overflowing with devotion for our queen and sometimes devotion shows itself as desire. The Sun In Splendour provides a release.”

“So the overseers allow you to run this place?”

“The punishment for petty treason is a fine and corporal punishment. We’re alright so long as they get a little cut of the proceeds and all our clients get spanked.”

“How perverse!” Meridia giggled as an idea formed in her head. She’d left the castle hoping for something different, but playing her usual role with someone who didn’t recognise her had an appeal of its own. “Say, what if I said I was here for work? Could you get me a female client? I’ll work for free, just for tonight.” The proprietor’s eyes widened. It was a strange request, Meridia thought, but surely not the strangest made of her.

“You ever whored before?” she said, looking like a golden egg has dropped into her lap, which it had.

“Several times,” said Meridia. That was a lie, but she’d been a client several times, how hard could it be?

“Well if you want to make me free money then you can make me free money, posh girl. There’s an empty room upstairs, third on the right. Do you know how to paddle a girl’s rear?”

“Expertly,” said Meridia. “And lots of other things as well.” Right then there were four prospective fathers for the next princess Vespera in the dungeons under Castle Solari, two male and two female, all with shackles on their limbs and cages on their cocks. She had a great deal of experience in making them work for her favour and punishing them when they displeased her.

“Good,” said the proprietor. “Remember to give them a watchword even if they don’t ask for harder stuff.”

“How long will I be hired for?”

“As long as she wants you for. Got a name?”

“Poldena.”

“Wait upstairs and I’ll send you the next girl who wants a Solari to step on them.” She took a small key from inside her corset and tossed it to Meridia. “Ask them who they want you to be. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Meridia made her way up the narrow staircase and along a corridor lit up dim lamps. The first room she passed was silent, but sounds of passion came from behind the second. She stopped to listen and heard the rhythmic slap-slap-slap of flesh on flesh and a woman’s voice moaning ‘sorry your highness’, ‘thank you your highness’ in between every impact. Grinning, she opened the third door. The _Sun In Splendour_ ’s rooms were well appointed; whoever had decorated them was familiar with the castle’s bedrooms. There was the same blue wallpaper, the same woven rugs, the same white bedding with the royal monograms on each pillow. A rack of weaponry hung from the wall; flogger, cane, crop, paddle, cuffs, collar and leash. Just as in Meridia’s own room, the bed had straps on its posts.

Opening the slatted balcony door she stepped outside and looked down into the street. The night was slightly less stifling twelve feet about ground and out of the packed crowd below. It was just like watching a parade from the castle, she thought as she watched them pass by. How many of the people below were members of her own household staff? Who would be the one to catch her eye and come up to her room? Would the guardswoman in the dented breastplate want her to play the part of her mother? Could the redhead in the yellow dress endure the same harsh treatment she showed her suitors? How many previous Meridias had done what she was doing now?

“Are you Poldena?”came a voice from the room behind her. Meridia turned to see her client silhouetted in the doorway.

“I am,” she said. “And you are?”

“Lorgona,” the client replied. She was about Meridia’s age, maybe a little younger, tall and thin and very pretty. Her dark hair was cut boyishly short, her skin strikingly pale, her eyes a deep green that Meridia had never seen before. Her tunic and skirt were black, with an embroidered pattern of scarlet eyes on the blouse. It was a the vestment of a sorceress of Mother Night. A thin red cape hung her shoulders, marking her as a novice of the temple. Meridia’s heart beat a little faster. She’d attended ceremonies at the Temple of Night with her mother, but always in her full finery and always separated from the crowd. This initiate couldn’t possibly have seen her up close, could she?

“You’re not in costume,” Lorgona stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. “The girl on the balcony earlier was dressed up and had a crown.”

“This is what the princess wears when she sneaks out of the castle to prostitute herself,” thought Meridia. What she said, disappointed in her own cowardice, was “Sorry, mine’s being washed.”

“That’s alright, you look beautiful,” Lorgona smiled shyly. “Beautiful and just like her.”

“Thank you,” said Meridia. Thinking of how the women she’d patronised on her previous visits to the city had flattered her she went on. “You’re very beautiful too. I’m here to make you happy Lorgona. Before we begin, have you ever paid for sex before?”

“Yes, twice,” said Lorgona. “I’m not supposed to, but there’s never been a novice who didn’t break the rules.”

“Do you know what a watchword is?”

“Yes.”

“Your watchword is cabbage. Repeat it for me.”

“Cabbage.”

“Very good,” said Meridia. “Undress for me and kneel down like a good subject, then tell me exactly what you’d like from me.”

A row of pegs ran along one wall, ready to take the client’s clothes. Before taking anything else off Lorgona took a pouch that hung from her belt and carefully placed it on the tablet beside the bed. Meridia watched eagerly as she stripped. The novice’s nipples were very pale, her body hair dark and untrimmed, her finger and toenails scarlet. Naked she knelt down on the rung, her shoulders tense, fists balled on her knees. Meridia circled around the kneeling woman to inspect her from every angle. It was immediately clear that those two trip previous trips to the pleasure district were the extend of Lorgona’s experience. That would make things easier, she thought. With time she could teach this girl exactly how to kneel, how to pose, how to grovel and adore her just like her suitors did.

“Why are you here Lorgona?” Meridia said, realising that she was wasn’t going to speak unless prompted.

“To fuck a woman who looks like the princess,” said Lorgona.

“You’re in luck, I look a lot like the princess. Why do you want to fuck me, why come to the Sun In Splendour?”

“I’ve seen the royal family at the temple a few times,” Lorgona glanced at the rack of toys on the wall. “They’re both beautiful and the idea seemed wicked.” 

“Do you want to be wicked Lorgona?”

“Very much.”

“And do you understand that you have to be punished for coming here? Do you want to be spanked by a woman who looks like the princess?”

“Yes. I’ve been bad.” Lorgona’s tone told Meridia that she hadn’t though this through beforehand. She had to know more about this girl. Temple novices didn’t normally wonder the streets alone or visit brothels any more than princesses did. Commoners and goblins wouldn’t question a sorceress in uniform, but she could.

“I’ve never been with a sorceress before. What makes you different from the other novices?”

“I’m braver than them.”

“Are you allowed to be outside the temple?

“No. They’ll disciple me if I’m caught here.”

“Worse that I will?”

“Much worse.” It was no lie. The royal house knew all the mysteries and secrets of the Order of Night and Meridia shuddered to think of what the novice was risking to be with her.

“You’d best give me another reason to punish you then.” Turning to the wall Meridia drew the shorter of two riding crops from its place on the rack. It was light, flexible, about right for a beginner. “Maybe I’ll get angry enough to outdo your overseers.”

“I’ve painted my nails,” Lorgona held out her hand. “To make it look like they’re stained from a sacrifice.”

“What else?” She tapped Lorgona’s palm gently with the tip, making her flinch and shiver.

“I’m blaspheming by kneeling. A sorceress of the mother dark shouldn’t prostrate herself in front of a commoner.”

“A novice isn’t a sorceress, you’ve just admitted your fingers aren’t stained.” She tapped Lorgona’s shoulder, harder this time. “You really do need a spanking. Where did you get the silver for this?”

“From the temple treasury.”

“Did you steal it?”

“Cabbage,” Lorgona’s shy eyes were suddenly fierce and looking straight up at her. “I’m not here to talk about how I get my money.” Meridia flinched under the glare, realising that she’d made a mistake. She had always enjoyed interrogating her suitors, making them disclose every intimate detail and embarrassing secret while they knelt in front of her and watching them squirm. But this wasn’t the castle dungeon, and there was no daughter to hold over Lorgona’s head.

“Sorry,” she said. “Do you want to go on?”

“Of course, just don’t ask personal questions.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

“There’s a pinch of black lotus pollen in the pouch on the table. I want to take it after we fuck, if that’s alright.”

“What does that do?” said Meridia, feigning ignorance. She knew full well that the black lotus grew only in a black pool in the catacombs deep beneath the temple. The sorceresses partook of it golden pollen to commune with Mother Night and her ten thousand unseen children on the other side of the sky. Here was a change to try something truly forbidden to her, one that she wouldn’t have again.

“It’s a drug we use in the temple,” said Lorgona. “It makes you dream while you’re awake. With enough of it you can see the gods.”

“Do you have enough to see the gods here?”

“Just about, maybe.”

“Well I won’t stop you,” said Meridia. There’d be time to indulge later, right then she wanted the novice more than any drug. “But let’s make love first. Undress me. Start with the shoes.”

With a delighted smile Lorgona went to work, red nails fumbling with brass buttons and buckles, stripping her of her disguise as though each piece of clothing were a treasure to be seized with both hands. The knife in its little leather sheath gave her pause, until Meridia unstrapped it and tossed it away under the bed. Beneath her servant’s uniform she was athletic, tanned and a good three inches taller than her client. “Stand up and kiss me,” she said. Lorgona’s lips were clumsy, her tongue eager, her fingers greedy. With one hand Meridia ran one hand through the novice’s hair, while with the other she slipped the crop between her legs. Lorgona purred with please and clasped her thighs around it, the leather shaft rubbing her slowly up and down.

“Are you enjoying that?” said Meridia. Lorgona nodded wordlessly and kissed her again in reply. “Wicked girl. Put your hands on the dresser. You’ll take your punishment before you get anything else.”

Lorgona’s rear was as petite and lovely as the rest of her body, quite unlike the woman Meridia was used to. The crop whistled through the air and she sighed and gasped with each blow, pale skin darkening to pink, pink skin darkening to red. Her tolerance for pain was impressive.

“How often are you punished at the temple?” Meridia said. Smack! Went the crop.

“Very,” said Lorgona. Smack! Went the crop again. “Thank you your highness.”

“Do you enjoy being punished?” Smack!

“Sometimes.” Smack! “Thank you your highness.”

“Are you enjoying this?” Smack!

“Yes.” Smack! “Thank you your highness.”

Next she made Lorgona crouch between her legs, made her use that eager tongue and those greedy fingers. Though inexperienced she worked well, licking, sucking, kissing and caressing. Meridia moaned into the back of her hand like a proper lady should. The girl had paid money to fuck a woman who looked like a princess and although she didn’t know it she was getting what princes and heroes risked their lives for; the chance to kneel down with a smarting backside, working diligently to please her princess. If they were in the castle, if the novice had been a suitor, then she would send her away with nothing in return. She would come back night after night to plead on her knees, debasing herself for the chance to be the one.

But they weren’t in the castle, and she couldn’t send Lorgona away without paying her back and then some. Meridia came quickly, and then it was the clients turn to take charge, to say what she wanted and forget for an hour that she was a mere novice. What she wanted was almost everything. Meridia’s fingers inside her cunt, Meridia’s fingers inside her ass, Meridia’s tongue in her mouth, her hand slapping Meridia’s ass, her fingers squeezing Meridia’ breasts, Meridia’s tongue in her cunt. She made the novice come, let the novice spank her, let the novice ride her face and showed her a little of everything she’d learned from a score of lovers from a every land under the sun.

They lay on the bed exhausted and happy, smelling of each other and tasting each other on their lips. Lorgona gestured towards the little pouch, lying on the table with its precious contents.

“Share that with me and I’ll pay you back double,” she said. Lorgona smiled and nodded a wordless agreement. She opened the pouch and drew out a paper envelope. Inside the envelope was a sprinkling of golden powder, almost too find to see. She rubbed her finger into the paper and held it up to Meridia’s face.

“Have you ever taken this before?” said Meridia.

“No, but this is hardly anything.”

“Have you taken anything else before?”

“Yes, don’t worry about me. What about you?”

Without replying Meridia gently licked the dust from her fingertip. Despite the tiny dose its taste was clear, a sweetness stronger than honey that tingled on her tongue. Lorgona licked the remaining pollen from the paper and they sat down side by side on the bed.

“How long does it take to take hold,” said Meridia.

“I don’t know for sure, but not long.” They sat in silence for a few minutes, until a wave of lethargy washed over Meridia and she lay back on the mattress. Lorgona was speaking, but the words didn’t mean much to her. She needed to sleep.

She was floating in darkness, ice-cold darkness which tugged at her with ten thousand grasping hands that sought to pull her to pieces and make her part of the dark as well, tried to snuff out the heat and warmth that was her and make her one with her mother who was the dark and the cold, who birthed her each morning and devoured her each night. With a great effort she spread the wings on her back and beat them against the dark, each heavy beat fanning the flame that was herself. By the light of her feathers she saw the moon beside her, slim and pale and lovely. It must be night, she thought, and here was her sister come to guide her to their mother’s waiting gullet on the bed. The moon pushed her down and the dark hands grasped her wrists and ankles tight. The green-eyed beauty was on top of her, licking, kissing, sucking, fingering. She squirmed in her bonds under the hot tongue, the sharp teeth, the pointed nails. Flames rose with her moans, sparks danced between their kisses, her skin blazed under the freezing edge of the knife as her lover ran it over her chest, across her nipples and under the line of her throat. The moon was straddling her, eyes flashing, holding the blade above her head in a hand that swayed from side to side like a charmed serpent. Her breathing was harsh and ragged, her skin sheened with sweat, her hair on fire. Around them ten thousand of their siblings flashed and sparkled, beneath them ten thousand more gibbered and sang in the unfathomable blackness.

“Do it”,” she shouted, “Do it do it do it do it”.

Lorgona plunged the dagger into her chest with a scream of ecstasy. Pain exploded outwards from the wound, pain so intense that it drove out the lotus dreams in an instant and left Meridia pinned to a bed in a brothel, hands and feet bound to the frame as her blood drenched the linen. The initial shock faded in moments. Lorgona was still straddling her, eyes unfocused, giggling with delight. She reached out to grasp the metal hilt of the dagger, then screamed and leapt from the bed as her fingers brushed against it. The metal must already be burning hot, Meridia thought, and in a few moments the whole room would be ablaze. 

“Run,” she managed to croak. “Please run.” Smoke rose from her mouth and flames from her wound, not visions now but real flames. The sheets were on fire as well, her blood boiling in her veins. Meridia tried to pull free of the handcuffs, but her limbs would not move. She could feel wings in place of her arms and talons where her feet should be, a long tail of feathers sprouting from be spin and the hardness of a beak covering her mouth. The dagger melted into a puddle inside her collapsed ribcage as the mattress caught afire. Her soul tore free of her body with a triumphant caw and Meridia lost consciousness.

It was a night in high summer and Lorgona the novice stood spread-eagle before the statue of Mother Night in the courtyard before the gates of the her temple. The clawed hands of the goddess held her in place by her wrists, ankles and throat. Her body gleamed in the light of two braziers at her feet, for she had been painted gold from the tips of her toes to the crown of her shaven head. Beneath the gold she smarted from a hundred strokes of the whip. A week had passed and the waking nightmares of the black lotus hadn’t completely left her. The shadows that streamed out around the statue danced in a strange, unnatural manner and formless, disturbing thoughts nagged at the back of her mind. Since crawling back to the temple naked she had been subject to one punishment after another, leaving her too exhausted for pain, fear or anything else but dull resignation. She didn’t know if her brain would ever really heal, or if she had the heart in her to continue as a sorceress.

Despite the pleasure district just over the precinct walls the courtyard was quiet, and all but empty. Occasionally an initiate and worshipper would pass by, but none of them paid Lorgona any mind. A pail of water stood behind the statue and every hour, on the hour, an overseer would emerge from the temple to hold it to her parched lips. She knew from this that three hours had passed; there were five more to go. Five hours of heat, of pain, of hunger and thirst and loneliness with her thoughts.

A figure in grey was walking towards her, she realised, a tall woman in a hooded cloak. As she stepped into the circle of firelight the woman lowered her hood to reveal a waterfall of golden hair and Lorgona realised that it was Princess Meridia.

“Hello Lorgona,” said the princess-prostitute. “After what happened I had to come and see you. I’m sorry.”

“Hello your highness,” Lorgona rasped. “Or should I call you Poldena?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Are you here to free me? Can you make the overseers pardon me?

“No, but I want you to know that when I have the chance I’ll reward you for what you did.”

“How?”

“Once I’m queen I can make you high sorceress, if I want to.”

“And will you?”

“If you please me like you did in that bedroom, yes,”

“Did I please you?”

“Yes. Was I worth your silver?”

“You were.”

“Thank you.” Meridia smiled mournfully and reached for her belt. As Lorgona watched with furrowed, hairless brows she opened her britches and pulled them down from her hips, revealing a metal belt which gleamed in the fire light. “I have to wear this for a month, but when I’m unlocked I want us to meet again. And I want you to punish me for getting you in to this mess. As long and hard as you like.”

“Is that a promise,” said Lorgona, tilting her head back as much as she could. “In front of her?”

“Yes,” said Meridia.

“You’re going to regret that Poldena.”

“I hope I do.” The princess cupped Lorgona’s face in her hands, kissed her gently on the mouth, then turned and strode away into the sweltering night.


End file.
